Broken And Strengthened (Psalm 30)
When a fire burns through a forest it brings devastation. A whole lot of things are destroyed, and sometimes the homes of woodland creatures are changed forever. But God designed a forest in such a way that it needs an occasional fire. The underbrush is cleaned out in a forest fire and the trees end up having more nutrients to survive. The competition for nutrients from the soil is eliminated and the trees thrive. Diseases and insects that would harm the trees are removed. And the fire that brought devastation to the forest made the forest stronger.
The same thing can be said about the human body. When we go to the gym and lift weights, we are damaging ourselves. And that’s the point. Lifting weights damages muscles. It causes micro tears. And a proper weightlifting regiment is all about managing this damage. Those tears are repaired by the body and made stronger. As the damage heals, the density of the muscles increases, and the damage inflicted by weightlifting causes our bodies to become stronger. We also see this with long distance runners and MMA fighters. Long distance runners put a lot of stress on their bones by running. Small fractures are created, and calcium fills in the fractures to heal the bone. When this happens, the bone becomes denser. MMA fighters punch and kick a bag that is a little less dense than their bones. When a shin makes impact with a punching bag it causes micro fractures. These microfractures are filled in with calcium and the bone becomes denser and less likely to be harmed when something collides with that shin bone.
God has created the world in such a way that breaking causes strengthening. God has designed us as individuals in that way as well. And this applies to both our physical and spiritual lives.
In Psalm 30, we will see that David rejoices and is thankful for an illness that he had, and God healed him from, because God used it to strengthen him. And so, we as believers should rejoice after we’ve recovered because God uses hardships in our lives to strengthen us.
Be Thankful For The Healing (Psalm 30:1-3)
The beginning of this text is quite simple. God healed David from an illness that nearly brought him to death. Through we are not told what the event was, we do understand that David felt as if he was going to die and he called out to the Lord. And this is just David crying out to God in thankfulness that the Lord rescued him from this illness.
We are living at, what I think, is the end of a pandemic. I may just be being optimistic, but I believe Covid will be with us for a long time, but our bodies will be more immune to it. A few of you have probably felt as if you were near death. At this point we probably all at least know someone who was hospitalized due to this virus. And this doesn’t even take into account all the other illnesses that you have had in your life. There have probably been others that you though were going to take you to the grave. And since you are reading this today, I am going to assume that God brought you through.
So, be like David in this moment. Be thankful and live thankfully. Live rejoicing in God’s grace. He has given you another day.
Be Thankful For The Breaking And The Rebuilding (Psalm 30:4-10)
What a weird thing to be thankful for! That may be what you are thinking. How difficult is it to be thankful for the hardships in your life, especially when they almost drag you to the grave? But you should be.
Now, toward the middle of the psalm, we are let into the situation a little more and understand why it is that God allowed this illness to break into David’s life and cause so much disruption in his life. God was disciplining David.
David tells God’s people to praise God because
“For His anger is but for a moment,
but His favor is for a lifetime.
Weeping may tarry for the night,
but joy comes with the morning.”
(Psalm 30:5 ESV)
God’s anger had momentarily fallen upon David in this moment of illness. And for a short time, he felt it bitterly. But on this side of things David could rejoice.
What was David being disciplined for?
“As for me, I said in my prosperity,
“I shall never be moved.”
By your favor, O LORD,
You made my mountain stand strong;
You hid Your face’
I was dismayed.”
(Psalm 30:6-7 ESV)
In David’s prosperity, he had begun to think that he was really something and that he was trusting in Himself. It’s a feeling that we all know too well. That phrase, “born on third and thinks he got a triple”, probably applies to us all in one way or another. We are a creature given to pride and arrogance and it shows up in this way in extraordinary ways.
God loved David too much to live him in that arrogance. God allowed an illness to nearly kill him so that he could strengthen David. Suddenly, when he was weak, David understood his place in the world. And that place was under the lordship and protection of God Almighty. And when he understood that his mountain stood strong.
The prayer itself was a simple prayer that seems to exhibit David’s change of heart. He asked for healing, but it was not for himself. He wanted to be healed so that he could glorify God on this Earth (Psalm 30:8-10). David had been humbled through this ordeal.
Long periods of safety or success can lead us to be stupid. We begin to trust ourselves and what we can accomplish on our own. There are simply times that we need to be broken and this brokenness leads us to see that we need the Lord.
Time and time again, in different circumstances, I have been forced to reckon with my own neediness. I am not an independent creature, certainly not as independent as I like to think that I am. Bad knees and a bum shoulder have certainly gone a long way in proving that to me.
As a church we can do the same thing. We can think that we are doing church really well because we are good at what we do and not because we are working in dependence upon the Lord. I have been through this before. And I have probably told you this before, but it is worth telling again.
I saw some growth in our student ministry in Green Forest. And then the church split over a fight between the pastor and some congregants. It was a terrible ordeal. And some people that we loved and deeply cared for left that church forever. And when that happened, the youth ministry faded away. We only had three students in the ministry. As I tried every gimmick I knew or could come up with, to no avail, I finally understood that true growth would only come by the power of God. And the student ministry flourished because God blessed it. He brought me and others into a state of dependence upon God and He blessed the labor.
God doesn’t want us to be self-reliant. He wants us to be reliant upon Him. And when we become so arrogant that we think we can do everything on our own, He will graciously break us so that He can strengthen us in dependence upon Him.
Rejoice Because God Loved Us Enough To Break Us And Rebuild Us (Psalm 30:11-12)
The ending of this psalm is interesting because we don’t normally see someone doing so much rejoicing after being disciplined. But these tough situations are for our good and for our strengthening. And because of that strengthening, we will never cease to praise the Lord.
It’s hard to be thankful for what seemed like a really bad situation. I understand that. But when God brings us to the other side, we should be able to look back and say that God is for us and not against us and rejoice in all that He has done for us.
Conclusion
As Christians we oftentimes require a painful tune up. But the Christian is not ever easy. It begins with us realizing our sinfulness and need of a Savior, which is not fun at all. It was not fun to hear that I stood condemned before a holy God, but I needed to be cut to the heart so that I would see my need and trust the Savior. It was then and only then that I was able to look and see the beauty of Christ’s sacrifice. I needed to be broken to see my need for Jesus who had lived and died to bring me to God.
And this sort of pain does not go away. From time to time I need to be broken again. But the breaking brings goodness and healing. I am broken and strengthened in the Lord throughout my entire life. And in the end, every believer will say “Praise God for the breaking and the healing.”
R. Dwain Minor